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EHC Program Mission

The Effective Health Care (EHC) Program draws on evidence-based scientific information to make objective comparisons of current medical interventions. The resulting reports are intended to guide patients, health care providers, and policymakers in making informed decisions. The Program’s main products include:

Comparative Effectiveness Reviews are comprehensive reports that compare health care treatments, including pharmaceuticals, devices, and other types of interventions. The reviews cover evidence about effectiveness and harms and point out gaps in research. They are completed by AHRQ-funded Evidence-based Practice Centers.

DEcIDE Reports are derived from accelerated practical studies about the outcomes, comparative clinical effectiveness, safety, and appropriateness of health care items and services. They are prepared by research-based health organizations with access to electronic health information databases and the capacity to conduct rapid turnaround research. The centers are known as Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness (DEcIDE) Centers.

Translational Guides are plain-language publications produced by the John M. Eisenberg Center to translate comprehensive reports into practical tools to help people use evidence in their decision-making.

Technical Briefs provide an overview of key issues related to an emerging clinical intervention. Technical Briefs focus on interventions for which there are limited published data and too few completed protocol-driven studies to support definitive conclusions. The emphasis of the Technical Briefs is to provide an early objective description of the state of science on the topic.

To maintain transparency and to ensure research is being conducted on issues of importance to the public, the EHC Program seeks your input at several points throughout the research process. Please visit the Web site (www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov) to see draft research questions, reports, and guides.